An Honest Mistake
by sanguine2
Summary: Season One, episode 20 coda: after the hiking and the medivac rescue things are far from settled. Warning: pre-slash.


_Season 1- Episode 20 Coda: after the hiking and the medivac rescue things are far from settled._

_11:00 am the next morning:_

"So you going to tell me why you're avoiding me?"

Danny looks up at Steve who's standing in his doorway and sounding just like he expected him to.

Pissed.

Then Steve grimaces and Danny notices how beat to hell he looks. The arm in a cast and a sling he expected. The cuts and bruises on his face the same. But those dark circles under his eyes? Not so much. It takes real effort to sound unconcerned, "Well look who's back-so how's the arm?"

"I asked you a question."

"I know but it kinda made no sense so I ignored it."

"Well don't. I want an answer."

"What's up? Did a night in the hospital made someone a little grumpy?"

"Come on Danny knock it off. You didn't come visit last night with Chin and Kono. You sent Kamekono to pick me up today. Are you pissed off at me or something?"

"No. It's just we have an active murder investigation going on and given that we were down a man I've been pretty busy."

"Fine," Steve says and storms off.

Surprised that he sounds more hurt than angry, it takes all Danny has not to jump up and go after him.

A few minutes later when a lead comes in about the fishing boat he has no choice but to duck his head in Steve's office. After he explains what HPD turned up at the dock he says, "So I thought I'd head over there now – you uh…, you want to go with me?"

_God the guy looks pale._

"No, take Chin. I'll stay here."

"Really. You sure?

"Yeah," Steve says, not looking up. "Go."

"Okay. If that's what you want." Feeling sick to his stomach the next thing Danny knows he's heading out of the parking lot with Chin riding shotgun.

"Steve okay?" Chin asks Danny once they've pulled out into traffic.

"I don't know. I didn't ask. I'm guessing his arm probably hurts."

"You're guessing? Brah when they have to knock you out to set a bone you know it hurts."

"They had to knock him out?"

Chin rears back, "Don't you guys talk?"

"Yes Chin we talk. We just haven't had much of a chance to do it lately."

"So I've noticed."

"What's that supposed to mean ?"

"Whatever you want it to."

The lead takes over an hour to run down and turns out to be worthless. When they get back to the office Kono's alone.

"Where's the boss," Chin asks, glancing over at Steve's empty office.

"I had to take him home-he didn't feel so good."

"His arm?"

"Yeah and his stomach. Poor guy took some pain pills and threw up five minutes later."

"Tough one-he okay when you got him home?"

"I guess so-he wouldn't let me come in–told me to go, that he was just going to crash."

"That moron." Danny's knots his fist and shakes it. "Everyone knows not to take pain medicine on an empty stomach, I'm sure they told him-"

"Give it a rest brah," Chin interrupts. "Since when have you known Steve to listen to anything people tell him?"

"Well then it's his own damn fault he threw up."

"Owww, brah. That's harsh." Kono eyes Danny quizzically. Sometimes she just doesn't get these haoles.

Chin, being gifted with a Zen master-like ability to see through even Jersey style bravado gives Danny's shoulder a gentle squeeze, "Hey, look, we've got everything under control here. Why don't you go keep Steve company-make sure he doesn't do any more damage to himself."

"Yeah, make him some chicken noodle soup or something," Kono adds.

As scared to death as he is to be alone with McGarrett, Danny can't stand the gnawing feeling in his gut any more. "Okay fine. I guess someone has to babysit the moron."

He stops on the way to Steve's to pick up some groceries and takes his time in the soup aisle then dawdles deciding whether to go with Coke or ginger ale. When he pulls up to the house he feels like he's the one who needs the saltines and ginger ale in the bag next to him. _Get a grip,_ he tells himself.

For about the fiftieth time.

_Okay fine, so basically I said, I Love you. Is it any wonder he hates me? _

Like every time in the past 24 hours that he's had this conversation with himself, Steve's pissed off expression as he's being hauled up to the chopper flashes in front of Danny's eyes.

"Might as well get this over with," he says to himself as he walks up to the front door.

The door's unlocked and the house completely quiet. "Steve?" He calls out a few times as he makes a quick circuit of the downstairs and glances out on the empty lanai.

"You up here?" he calls on his way upstairs, lowering in voice even more in hopes that Steve just might be asleep and he can leave the groceries and a note and get the hell out .

What he sees when he reaches the bedroom at the top of the stairs stops him in his tracks and does something to his chest that must be a close relative to how a heart attack feels.

_Look at him_.

There he is, all six feet and a few inches of him curled up on his side in nothing but a pair of briefs. His back is to Danny so he isn't sure if he's asleep or not but from the tangle of sheets around and not covering him, if he is, he put up a hell of a fight before he got there.

_Oh man_.

Danny bites his lower lip. The fall really did a hell of a number on his back. He stares at the angry purple-red mosaic of cuts and scrapes and remembers the hit Steve took when he basically free fell onto that rock ledge. His head replays the sickening sound at the moment of impact-the terror he felt at the time is almost right back there in his gut

_Almost._

What keeps it a bay is that as beat to hell as Steve's back is-it's also bare and broad and beneath the bruises are the most exquisitely defined lats Danny has ever seen. He'd give a weeks pay to run his fingers over them. Instead of terror he starts to feel a familiar throb somewhere south of his gut.

His eyes continue their tour and the throb gets worse.

_Oh man._

_Again_

He follows Steve's hips as they winnow down to his low riding briefs. He's seen glimpses of the beginnings of the tattoo on his lower back but never as much as he sees now. He bites back a groan-oh God does he want to run his fingers over that-make that his fingers and tongue and mouth to boot. He stares Steve's taut ass as long as he dares and then studies his long tan legs. They might be covered in bruises but God what he wouldn't give to have them wrapped around him.

Steve makes a soft moaning sound that instantly snaps Danny out of his X-rated daydream. The poor guy must have been trying to prop up his cast because there's a pillow on the bed next to him. Apparently that didn't work because he's got the arm cradled against his chest, hugging it like he's trying to keep from moving it.

"Steve?" Danny asks, taking a few steps into the room, "You awake?"

He is now because he startles and rolls on his back to face Danny. He moves way too fast based on the hiss and grimace that he makes. When he can talk a second later his voice is shaky "What are... you doing here?".

"I just came to check on you- Kono said you got sick-"

"You shouldn't have wasted your time. I'm fine."

"You don't look like you feel so good." _Neither do I._ In fact Danny feels like his chest is about to explode.

_So he was right, Steve officially hates his guts_.

The way Steve rolls back on his side pretty much confirms the fact, "Just go Danny."

_Okay, that leaves little room for interpretatio_n

He starts to turn and leave.

Why stay? He's obviously not wanted. But then, in spite of what he's 99% sure of, he takes a shaky breath and walks across the room and then, carefully, so he doesn't jar his arm, sits down on the edge of the bed facing Steve. Now that he's closer he gets his first surprise.

Damn if his eyes aren't bloodshot.

And watering?

_What's that about?_

"Steve," he says softly. "I just want to help."

"Like you helped me last night?" Steve snarls. "Like you helped me this morning?" He takes a ragged breath. "Don't strain yourself okay? Because I don't need you. I mean it's just a broken arm. No way do I want you wasting any of your precious time on me!"

Steve's voice is hoarse and the catch to it when's finished sounds like it could easily morph into to a sob.

Danny is flat out flabbergasted. "Hey I'm sorry. You're right. I should have come to see you. I should have picked you up this morning... I was just being stupid." Steve's looking up at him with those damned blue eyes of his and this time they're threatening to spill over and it just about kills him. "Now it's your turn, come on, talk to me. What's wrong?"

"Why Danny?" he croaks then swallows hard. "Why the cold shoulder?"

"I guess because I was... make that I am pretty much terrified."

"Of what?"

Steve's confused frown is the first ray of hope Danny's seen since he did the stupidest thing in his life.

_Oh God._

He lets himself consider why Steve would sound so clueless. I_s there any chance he doesn't hate his guts?_

"What are you terrified of Danny?"

"Well you see... yesterday when you yelled thank you to me and I saw that you were going to be okay and that I hadn't lost you and that what I'd done to get you rescued had worked-well I felt like my chest was about to burst and I did that stupid thing-you know, pointing to myself, drawing a heart, then pointing at you?"

Just describing his idiotic behavior makes Danny's face redden.

"Yeah, I remember. I liked that."

"You what?"

Steve shrugs, "I liked it."

"But you looked like you wanted to kill me."

"No I didn't."

"It sure as hell looked that way to me."

Steve's frown deepens. He looks away for a second trying to remember what was going on when Danny signaled him. When he looks back a weak smile plays across his face. "I think I know what you saw," he says. "Right when you did that, the harness slipped a little and yanked on my arm -it hurt like a son of a bitch and I guess my face showed it."

"Oh."

Danny feels stupid and light headed with relief. "Because I figured you were pissed as shit me for doing that, much less doing it in front of those big brawny military guys and Chin. I told myself I had been a class A jerk and that our friendship was in the shitter. Make that more like you'd be finding a way to transfer me out of Five 0 first chance you got."

Steve looks incredulous and shakes his head, "I... would never do that Danny. I don't give a damn that those guys and Chin saw you. What I saw was you telling me you just might feel as strongly as I do about... us. If that harness hadn't hit my arm you'd have seen the mother of all smiles spreading across my face."

Suddenly Danny's grinning like a fool. "Well I got to say that makes me pretty damn happy."

They smile at each other and Steve's about to say something when he squeezes his eyes closed and grimaces.

"Hey man," Danny smooths a hand over Steve's forehead, "We got to do something about that pain. Have you taken any more of those pills?"

"No and I don't want to. I hate throwing up."

"Well what do you know? We have something else in common. The good news is that puking's not mandatory when you take pain meds. Turns out that if you have just a little something in your stomach they won't bother you. I've got some stuff downstairs-let me go get it. Where are the pills anyway?"

"My... pants pocket." Steve nods toward a pile of clothes on the floor.

"Okay. Just hang in there buddy." It feels natural and wonderful for Danny to run his fingers over Steve's forehead so he does. "I'll go warm up some soup and be right back, okay?"

"Okay thanks," Steve says, glancing down and apparently just realizing how much of himself is on display.

Danny sees the embarrassment that washes over his face and grabs the sheet from around feet. As he pulls it over him, he stands and says, "Here you go, let's cover up that beat-to-hell body of yours before you catch cold. Now stay put-I'll be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere," Steve says just a little slyly.

"You bet your sweet patoot you're not."


End file.
